Monday, October 27, 2014

On behalf of the
American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC), The Cloud Foundation, Return
to Freedom, Utah photographer John Steele, and wild horse advocate Lisa Friday,
we filed a motion asking the federal district court in Utah to dismiss a case brought
by the Western Rangeland Conservation Association and Utah livestock owners
against the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The
ranchers seek to compel BLM to remove from both public and private lands in
Utah hundreds of federally protected wild horses that compete with
privately-owned livestock for water and forage on the range.The livestock owners have “permits” that
allow them to graze cattle and sheep on public lands, subsidized by the federal
taxpayers. These grazing interests ask the court to order the removal of wild
horses even though BLM has not determined that any “excess” wild horses exist
in these areas. In its response to the ranchers’ suit, the government denies
wild horses are damaging rangeland resources in these areas. A copy of the
brief filed seeking dismissal can be found here.